England’s Jonny Bairstow has made it clear he has no intention of following Ben Stokes into one-day retirement and plans to play all three formats for as long as he can.
Stokes made his surprise exit from 50-over cricket earlier this week after concluding that he could no longer perform at the peak of his powers across the full England schedule.
He departed with a warning that others may be forced into a similarly difficult choice if the calendar crunch continues, but Bairstow has made it clear he is not going anyway.
The 32-year-old is the only member of the current England squad who can claim to be a first choice in ODIs, Twenty20s and Tests – though the fixture list does not always allow him to take the field.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad that I’m one of the last all-format players but naturally there are challenges, we’ve seen that over a period of time now,” he told former England captain Michael Atherton in an interview with Sky Sports.
“But you know me well enough now, I’ll be trying to play all of them for as long as possible. I’ll be going all out for as long as I can. There might come a time when you do have to make a decision for different reasons but that’s part and parcel of life and cricket. In the near future I can’t see me making a choice because I’m loving being part of all three squads.
“It’s exciting. You go into a new one and you’ve got a freshness and new faces and energy around them because you’re going into a new format.
“Stokesey has a point in some ways about the overlapping games that there are. It’s a tricky job for everyone. It does have certain impacts and if you’re playing everything at full intensity it will take it out of people.”
